My books in Suzzallo library!

Well that was SO much fun - dropping off some of my picture books to add to the collection at Suzzallo library. Believe it or not, I had NO idea a bookmaker could just donate books to a library collection. So now my little selection of books will live a quiet life on the shelves in the children's collection.

Most of my books just vanish in a short while. They vanish into remaindering bins or vanish into children's libraries - where they get crayoned and torn up pages and then they vanish. But hopefully these books will last longer. And that's actually important to a book maker.

I felt like being an author and illustrator was almost like being a celebrity! Usually in bookstores, when I go in and introduce myself as a local children's book author, the clerks will roll their eyes and look irritated, like they wish I hadn't walked in. But today, the librarian seemed astonished. First she thought I had only written the books - then when she asked 'Who did the pictures?' and I said 'I did' - it was like amazement. Usually I feel more like a nobody when I go to the library - not like a Somebody!

So I'm more than happy to quaff down some imaginary champagne of 'author recognition'. lol!

Pencil? or Pen Brush?

Pencil? or Pen Brush? That's the question of this little film. With the magic of photoshop it's possible to switch out the line by itself on a drawing - to see how they look side by side.  This makes deciding much easier. And after looking it over I decided to vote for the pencil line - at least for this page of the book.

Imagination sometimes arrives on it's own...

Been having too much fun compiling this new poem-picturebook - it's an exercise in imagination. 

When interpreting a poem one is free to take any tack or try a number of solutions. So I sift and compile through my scrap pile, often finding older drawings that have just what I'm looking for. It occurs to me - as an illustrator I am as much an editor and chooser of images as I am a drawer.

The process of intuitively choosing the right image seems to arrive on it's own. I know exactly what I'm looking for arrives.

The idea that somehow an artist could go out and draw all that is kind of absurd.